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Friday, December 20, 2013

How to Make Chapati Dough (Roti Dough) in a Food Processor

I have been using my Kitchenaid stand mixer for making roti dough for a couple years now and would argue that buying one just for this is probably worth it. One of my least favourite activities in the kitchen is making chapati dough from scratch and anyway, I am all for technology taking over to make our lives simpler. Recently, I did a poll on my Facebook Page to see what people thought of a food processor and whether I really needed one. An overwhelming number of 'ayes' later, I am now a few hundred dollars poorer and richer by one Magimix. The review of the food processor itself is for another post but today let's look at how to make chapati dough in a food processor.

A few things before we start:

It's important to have a powerful enough motor to be able to knead dough since it's a 'tough' job for a machine. Make sure you check manufacturer's manual to make sure if you can make dough in your food processor

Keep all ingredients ready before you begin

I usually add a bit more water to the dough than needed, for smoother kneading, and then dust more flour and finish the final knead by hand

HOW TO MAKE CHAPATI DOUGH IN FOOD PROCESSOR

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Makes enough dough for 7 chapatis

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 cups of atta / Indian whole wheat flour

~ 1/3 cup of water

1/2 tsp of salt (or to taste)

2 tsp of oil, ghee, or butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make sure your food processor comes with a dough blade. It will have blunt edges but will look the same as your regular chopping blade.

2. Add the atta + salt to the largest bowl in your processor (in case it comes with multiple bowls - mine has three).

3. Close the lid and start the machine. If there are speed settings, start at the lowest speed to make sure the salt is mixed properly with the flour. With the machine running, add water in a slow trickle through the opening on the lid. Adjust water according to how much you need. This depends on the flour quality, consistency, humidity where you live, etc.

You will start to see the dough forming slowly as you add water. Stop and go so you are able to control the dough consistency. It's very easy to add more water so be careful!

4. Soon you will find the dough forming into a ball and 'cleaning' up the sides of the bowl. Add oil at this stage and let it run for a minute longer.

Done! The dough will be a bit sticky if you'd added the right amount of water. Take out, punch down, dust more flour if required, and let it rest for about 30 mins before proceeding to make chapati, roti, paratha, etc.

You can make pizza dough, bread dough, and even pie crust in your food processor. The method is pretty much the same, except that you would add the ingredients as necessary for what you are making. I plan to try pizza dough next and will update you on how that went.

You can also scale the quantities according to the capacity of your food processor bowl to make chapati / roti dough in bulk and store it in refrigerator up to 2 days for later use.

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